Auburn Dominates the Offensive Glass in 94-84 Win

The Vols led 28-14 ten minutes into the game, but it only took Auburn five minutes to erase that lead. The Vols led 61-56 with 8:30 to play, but Auburn was up 80-68 a little more than four minutes later.

When things got away from Tennessee today, they got away in a hurry. This scene played out at the end of the Arkansas game due to foul trouble, but today the Vols’ struggles were more troubling: dominated on the offensive glass at home.

And dominated is an understatement. Auburn finished with 22 offensive rebounds, only getting more defensive rebounds (24) because they grabbed two in the final seconds with the game out of reach. The Tigers rebounded half of their misses. The result:  74 shot attempts to Tennessee’s 58. The Vols actually shot the ball better (41.4% to 40.5%) and both teams were below average from three (roughly 29% each) and stellar at the line (Vols 81%, Auburn 86%). But when one team gets 16 more shot attempts, that team is going to win.

Auburn is a good offensive rebounding team, but Tennessee came into this game as a good rebounding team period…and the Vols got outworked and outplayed. Maybe the early lead took away a sense of urgency, maybe Saturday’s loss at Arkansas still loomed. Either way, Auburn looked like they wanted this one more, and they took it in Knoxville.

The loss sends Tennessee to 9-4 (0-2), and it gets no easier with Kentucky calling on Saturday. Anyone using the phrase “must-win” should step away from the keyboard, but it’s an important one to reclaim momentum and get another big win. If the Vols want to stay among the nation’s best in the Top 25, they’ll have to prove it against Kentucky. And they’ll have to bring more fire than they showed tonight to do so.

 

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Pete
Pete
6 years ago

Last night was the most disappointing game of the season for me. We had a double digit lead early and then Auburn just beat us up. Like all Bruce Pearl teams do, they pushed, bumped, held, jumped over the back and got away with it because they did it consistently at every position, all game long. Auburn was tougher. They wanted the rebounds and ripped balls out of our hands. They hustled to loose balls and long rebounds to get second chance points. They put in the effort and the hustle. They drove hard to the basket and dared us… Read more »

Gavin Driskill
Gavin Driskill
6 years ago

Basketball seasons are long and inevitably have ebbs and flows. Texas A&M is going through the same thing after getting to #5 and getting absolutely blasted in their first 2 SEC games.

The question is whether last night was a one-off or the start of a troubling trend. We have seen fall offs in play under Barnes in the back half of conference play, but those were generally related to injuries.

Last night was bad, but the season is not lost. Yet.